_Manners of the Irish_ (Vol. viii., p. 5.).--In the very curious extract
given by your correspondent H., _boyranne_ is very likely to stand for
_borbhan_, the Irish for "lamentation" or "complaint." An Irish landlord
knows full well that, even up to the present day, his tenants "keep the
bread, and make _borbhan_." _Molchan_, I suspect, comes from _miolc_, whey.
_Localran_ stands for _loisgrean_, corn turned out of the ear. As to the
concluding line of the extract, I must leave it to some better Irish
scholar than I can boast myself.
"I am the geyest mayed of all that brought the somer houme,"
plainly has reference to the old practice, still prevalent in some parts of
Ireland on May-day, when young girls carry about a figure dressed as a
baby, singing the Irish song, [Irish: thugamar fein an samhra linn], "We
have brought the summer with us" (See _Transactions of the Kilkenny
Archaeological Society_). _Ultagh_ (_Ultach_) is Irish for an Ulster man,
as H. will see by consulting any Irish dictionary, and can have no
connexion with Utlagh, the Kilkenny money-lender. _Ugteller_ is of course a
misprint for _Kyteller_. Would that H. would give us his real name and
address, or at least allow me to ask whether H. F. H. do not constitute his
initials in full.